CORAL GABLES, Fla. – President Bush and John Kerry faced off last night in the first presidential debate, trading nonstop blows over whether it was right to go to war in Iraq.
Kerry was on the attack from the start and never let up, charging President Bush made a “colossal error of judgment” in attacking Iraq – but Bush shot back that the U.S. is safer without Saddam Hussein.
Bush recalled that Kerry once said anyone who disagreed about the need to get rid of Saddam Hussein wasn’t fit to be president, adding: “I agree with him.”
But Kerry claimed that he can keep America safer and said that it’s Bush fault that Osama bin Laden escaped in Afghanistan because Bush “outsourced” the job to Afghan warlords.
“Unfortunately, he escaped in the mountains of Tora Bora. We had him surrounded. We didn’t use American forces, the best trained in the world, to go kill him. The president relied on Afghan warlords and outsourced that job, too,” he said.
Bush said the best way to defeat terrorists “is to never waver” and charged Kerry has repeatedly switched positions and sent mixed messages to America’s troops, its allies and its foes.
“I understand everyone in this country doesn’t agree with all the decisions I’ve made,” Bush said, but added: “This nation of ours has got a solemn duty to defeat this ideology of hate.”
But Kerry seemed far better prepared than Bush, ready to counter the president’s points while Bush often repeated himself and at times seemed at a loss for words or defensive. The president even audibly sighed at times.
At one point in responding to Kerry, a frustrated Bush replied: “Of course I know Osama bin Laden attacked us.”
The heat was on Kerry because the debate came at a time when he trails Bush by 6 percentage points on average in national polls and is slipping behind in key swing states. But his performance could give him a rebound.
Asked to spell out what he saw as Bush’s “colossal misjudgments,” Kerry quipped: “Where do you want me to begin?” Then he accused Bush of failing to build a true international alliance.
Kerry insisted that he has a better plan to change things while Bush’s plan could be summed up in four words: “More of the same.”
Kerry repeatedly invoked his own Vietnam military service to argue that he better understands the troops. He even cited Bush’s dad – who didn’t invade Baghdad in the Persian Gulf War – to argue that the president’s policy of invading Iraq was a mistake.
“I believe in being strong and resolute and determined and I will hunt down and kill the terrorists wherever they are. But we also have to be smart,” Kerry said.
“Iraq was not even close to the center of the war on terror before the president invaded it. He rushed to war in Iraq without a plan to win the peace. You don’t take America unless you have a plan to win the peace.”
Kerry spoke emotionally about families “going out on the Internet to get the state-of-the-art body armor to send to their kids” in Iraq while Bush had trouble articulating his blast at Kerry for voting against $87 billion for troops.
Kerry retorted that his message to the troops is: “Help is on the way. I believe those troops deserve better than what they’re getting.”
The debate, run by PBS anchor Jim Lehrer, is the first of three presidential showdowns. The lone vice presidential debate is next Tuesday, the second Bush-Kerry debate comes next Friday in St. Louis and the final one is Oct. 13 in Tempe, Ariz.
Nothing was left to chance. A manicurist at Kerry’s hotel, the Sheraton Bal Harbour, confided to a reporter that she’d been summoned to Kerry’s hotel room to give his nails a final buff before the make-or-break debate.
Kerry, at 6-feet-4, is five inches taller than the 5-feet-11 Bush and this marked the first chance that voters would get to see both of them together on stage. In 1988, Democrat Michael Dukakis – 6 inches shorter than Bush’s dad – insisted on an artfully built mound to elevate him and narrow the height gap to 3 inches but the president’s aides said they never even thought of that.
“It’s silly,” said Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman.
Bush began the big day in the spotlight as healer-in-chief, comforting hurricane victims – he’s done that here on five days in the past six weeks and analysts say it has really helped soften the president’s image as war leader.
In Port St. Lucie, Bush and his brother – Florida Gov. Jeb Bush – offered hugs and a kiss on the forehead to a woman who wiped tears from her eyes and Bush thanked volunteers for showing “the true heart of America.”
Kerry aides had told reporters that he planned a leisurely beach stroll in front of his hotel – but cancelled it at the last minute amid speculation he was worried about the contrast with Bush hugging hurricane victims.
Both Bush and Kerry did walk-throughs of the debate hall – Bush spent less than 10 minutes standing in front of the lectern, talking and gesturing forcefully as if making debate points, then left the hall.
Kerry also spent about 10 minutes on stage, adjusting the microphone and checking the podium, camera angles and lighting – but he stayed in the hall for 45 minutes and tried on his debate clothes in a room offstage.